The Hamptons

The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) SummerDocs series returns for its eleventh year to present entertaining and engaging documentary filmmaking from revolutionary storytellers. The series will kick off with a screening of MAIDEN, directed by Alex Holmes, on June 29, at 7:00pm, followed by COLD CASE HAMMARSKJÖLD, directed by Mads Brügger, on July 20 at 7:00pm, and concluding with CIRCUS OF BOOKS, directed by Rachel Mason, on August 24 at 7:00pm. All screenings will take place at Guild Hall in East Hampton.

Following the screenings, HIFF Co-Chairman Alec Baldwin & HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent will lead conversations with the director of each film along with additional guests to be announced.

“We are proud of how the SummerDocs series has grown over the last 10 years. Bringing exciting documentaries, featuring powerful stories, to our festival community is now a significant part of our programming,” said HIFF Co-Chairman and SummerDocs series presenter Alec Baldwin.

“With fascinating documentaries that showcase topics including a brave group of female sailors, a wild and intriguing investigation into a plane crash from over 50 years ago, and a straight couple’s story of owning a gay porn shop, our audience will once again get a peek at some of the best non-fiction work of the year,” said HIFF Artistic Director David Nugent.

Past SummerDocs selections, including ICARUS (2017), TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM (2013), LAST DAYS OF VIETNAM (2014), THE COVE (2009), SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (2012) and HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE (2012), have gone on to receive Academy Award® nominations and wins. The series has also featured films from filmmakers including Rory Kennedy, Morgan Neville, Roger Ross Williams, Marina Zenovich, Robert Gordon, Stevan Riley, Louie Psihoyos, and Steven James.

HIFF welcomes back the Candescent Films Audience Award for the 6th year. Candescent was founded in 2010 by Lilly Hartley and supports documentaries and films that illuminate social issues. Sponsors for the kickoff documentary, MAIDEN on June 29, are Woodford Reserve and Scott Seltzer, Managing Director, The Seltzer Group at J.P. Morgan Securities. An additional special thanks to DuJour Media and The Baker House.

Tickets for the screenings are available for purchase online the hamptonsfilmfest.org.

For the eleventh summer HIFF will also be offering Film Camp, student filmmaking workshops, in partnership with Guild Hall in East Hampton and Southampton Arts Center in Southampton for students ages 8-15. During these workshops, students will have the opportunity to make their own films while learning screenwriting, directing, acting, producing, and editing from industry professionals. Additional information on the workshops is available on hamptonsfilmfest.org.

Other summer programming includes a “Now Showing” presentation of FRAMING JOHN DELOREAN with a post-screening Q&A with cast member Alec Baldwin and directors Don Argott & Sheena M. Joyce on Saturday, June 8 at 8PM at Guild Hall, and a special screening of the live documentary A THOUSAND THOUGHTS with a performance by the Kronos Quartet on Friday, June 21 at 8:00PM at Guild Hall. Both screenings are presented in partnership with Guild Hall.

HIFF also presents two additional special “Air, Land + Sea,” screenings BLUE directed and produced by Karina Holden on Tuesday, June 11 at 6:30PM at the UA in East Hampton 6, as well as an outdoor screening of SEA OF SHADOWS, directed by Richard Ladkani and sponsored by media partner Purist Magazine, on Friday, August 16 at 6:30PM at Gurney’s Montauk Resort.

Lastly, HIFF will continue their annual FREE Friday outdoor screenings, in partnership with Southampton Arts Center! hamptonsfilmfest.org

July and August “Summer Outdoor” Screenings at Southampton Arts Center at 8:30 pm:

July 5 – STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE
July 12 – FINDING NEMO
July 19 – SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN
July 26 – GET OUT
August 2 – SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE
August 9 – CRAZY RICH ASIANS
August 16 – BLACK PANTHER
August 23 – BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
August 30 – JAWS

Full Lineup of 2019 Summer Docs COMING!

MAIDEN
Saturday, June 29, at 7:00PM at Guild Hall in East Hampton
In 1989, the very idea of a competitive all-female sailboat crew was nearly inconceivable to the manly world of open-ocean yacht racing. They’d never make it to the start of the Whitbread Round the World Race, much less survive to the finish. They’d never find funding. They didn’t have the strength or skill. They’d die at sea. Did that many professional female sailors even exist?

Tracy Edwards proved them wrong. 24-year-old skipper Edwards, her second-hand racing yacht Maiden, and her seasoned crew not only became the first-ever all-woman challenge to the Whitbread, they proved able competitors in the famously grueling race, besting male crews in their class. By the time they returned to their starting point at Southampton, England, after 32,000 miles of global racing, they had shocked, inspired, and transfixed the sailing world and the British nation. Tracy Edwards was awarded the 1990 Yachtsman of the Year Award, the first woman ever to receive the accolade, and was named a Member of the Order of the British Empire.

COLD CASE HAMMARSKJÖLD
Saturday, July 20, at 7:00PM at Guild Hall in East Hampton
In 1961, United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld’s plane mysteriously crashed, killing Hammarskjöld and most of the crew. With the case still unsolved 50-plus years later, Danish journalist, filmmaker, and provocateur Mads Brügger (The Red Chapel, The Ambassador) leads us down an investigative rabbit hole to unearth the truth. Scores of false starts, dead ends, and elusive interviews later, Brügger and his sidekick, Swedish Göran Björkdahl, begin to sniff out something more monumental than anything they’d initially imagined.

In his signature agitprop style, Brügger becomes both filmmaker and subject, challenging the very nature of truth by “performing” the role of truth seeker. As Brügger uncovers a critical secret that could send shockwaves around the world, we realize that sometimes absurdity and irony are the emboldening ingredients needed to confront what’s truly sinister.

CIRCUS OF BOOKS
Saturday, August 24, at 7:00PM at Guild Hall in East Hampton
For over 35 years, the gay porn shop, Circus of Books, served as the epicenter for LGBT life and culture in Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to many in the community it served, the store was cultivated and cared for by its owners, Karen and Barry Mason: a straight couple with three children. CIRCUS OF BOOKS is an intimate portrait of the Masons and their journey to become one of the biggest distributors of hardcore gay porn in the United States. Their story unfolds through the lens of their daughter, filmmaker and artist Rachel Mason.